Old-School Junk

[Bill]

Dang Rob sorry I didn't get back to this post ubntil now. That was an awesome idea of them to cross breed two things at once. How did the upgrade go on the forks?

[RobAR]

I thought I would bump this one up for the benefit of painkiller - I don't think he had yet joined us at the time.
These two are my 'babies' and I'm sure that PK will think they are beauties!

Bill - the fork 'upgrade' on the DBR didn't turn out as sweet as expected. There aren't many idiots like me trying to keep these things trail-worthy and so the Economical Factor came into play. I just hate that!
It did restore the old Manitou, to a degree, but, not like she used to be. I may wind up ditching the elastomers and buying some coil springs. But Then... I will have to start All Over with the oil weight experiments for the damper cartridge. Life Is Good!
The coolest thing, though, is when I show up at the trail-head for a club ride and those pesky 20+ year old 'kids' scratch their heads trying to figure out why this old man is rockin' 80 mm travel on a fork. Then I have to explain how "When I was your age, I rode a rigid fork bike to school, with no shoes, in the snow, and uphill both ways". They just can't comprehend and I later dust them down the trail with my superior handling skills. Then they get out thier cellphones and ... you know.

[Painkiller]

Oh yea ! Thats what I'm talking about baby. If your gonna go proflex ya got to go top o line o. they had the Moto look down for sure. hey Rob are you hiding your first Murray with the red handle bars back in the corner in the one pic?

[Bill]

BTW Rob I love reading about stories from other members! As far as the history it is good to read it from someone who in their own words describe it .
Sorry things didn't turn out on your planned rebuild, but hey experimentation with failures is a good thing. Umm learn from your mistakes is in simple terms lol. Now if you two were to build one bike from the AMP forks and erm your frame I wander what would come of that? See I love experimenting, did I catch your attention Rob? When it comes to bikes my mind always wanders off thinking of many many different mods, ideas, pioneering, etc. Oh ooops see there I went lol. Seriously though after bringing back the GT there were soo many things learned that made understand the true nature of being a bike restorer/mechanic and how fun it is.
Appreciation of anyone's work, attempts, or failures is something this old man has!!!

As far as those 20 something kids is something us older kids love to challenge. Owning a $2500-$4000 bike is one thing, knowing how it performs and like you said how to ride is another, brother!!! BTW got my first notch last week on the GT, guy in his late 20's laughed saying things and well had to dust em'! He was slow moving and got a green light as I was stopped. Mid-ring, 4th gear to start out by the time I caught up he had noticed, it was on like donkey kong. See he pulled away again and I was already down to 7th gear, figured what the hell lets try this. Back up 4th engaged warp drive (took it up to the 52t ring, hammer the strokes like no tomorrow! Did not watch him at all at this point, by the time I clicked to the 6th gear things were whizzing by :O. Realized I went 4 blocks away from start point and slowed to a stop. Looked around and saw the guy flipping me off while coming closer. I just started to laugh uncontrollably. After he got up to me he asked,"HOW THE HELL DID YOU BEAT ME WITH THAT PIECE OF $%^+????". Told him that it was the aerodynamic perplexual greatness of my awesome looks! NAH just kidding on last line. I told him that alot of time, money, and effort was put into the GT! He still did not believe it as his 2010 Specialized Carbon Fiber got ate up by the Predator! Told him I would race him again, just to let me go home and get my Scwhinn Meridian Adult Trike to make it fair. AHAHA again just kidding. Went to shake his hand he turned and rode off. Oh well, went to take off and OUCH my legs were cramping, streched out a bit then slowly pedaled back to the shop.
Sorry Rob just wanted to shoot the crap.

[Joe_W]

Well... I dusted (well, snow powdered) some COFs last winter. Came with my old (older than I am) Peugeot road bike with cyclocross tyres to our club ride in ankle deep snow plus ice under it + snow drifts in some places. The guys looked at me in disbelief: "Dude, don't you want to ride an MTB or something in these conditions?". Well, in principle yes, I just don't have one... What shall I say, I had to wait quite often for them. To be fair: I used to be commuting on that bike in winter, 17km each way.
On the road most of them are faster than I am. Some are retired and bike all day, one even has a real training schedule set up by a pro trainer (>35 hrs / week). So I do have to admit this was very satisfying!

[Painkiller]

Love it! rock on guys

[Bill]

(11-26-2012, 03:31 AM)Joe_W Wrote:  Well... I dusted (well, snow powdered) some COFs last winter. Came with my old (older than I am) Peugeot road bike with cyclocross tyres to our club ride in ankle deep snow plus ice under it + snow drifts in some places. The guys looked at me in disbelief: "Dude, don't you want to ride an MTB or something in these conditions?". Well, in principle yes, I just don't have one... What shall I say, I had to wait quite often for them. To be fair: I used to be commuting on that bike in winter, 17km each way.
On the road most of them are faster than I am. Some are retired and bike all day, one even has a real training schedule set up by a pro trainer (>35 hrs / week). So I do have to admit this was very satisfying!

Niceeeeeeee! See things turn around when the conditions and environment change ! Great job!